The trial date for murder defendants Michele Anderson and Joseph McEnroe has been rescheduled yet again to January 7, 2013.

Trial had been scheduled to begin May 4, then reset for September 7.

The defendants are accused of fatally shooting six members of Anderson’s family on Christmas Eve in Carnation in 2007. McEnroe and Anderson are each charged with six counts of aggravated first degree murder.

A June 2 Seattle Times report stated that the cost of preparing for the trials has reached $4.9 million – the most expensive since the investigation and later prosecution of Gary Ridgway in the case of the Green River killings.

The Times report stated that, according to the King County Office of Public Defense, more than $2.2 million has been spent on the defense of Anderson and over $2 million on the defense of McEnroe.

One of the reasons for the high costs, say the King County Prosecutor’s Office, is the fact the two defendants will be tried separately. A death penalty case also adds to the expense.

Prosecutors allege that Anderson and McEnroe, her former boyfriend, gunned down both her parents, Wayne and Judy Anderson; her brother and his wife, Scott and Erica Anderson; and the couple’s two children, Olivia, 5, and Nathan, 3.

Anderson and McEnroe had lived in a separate house on the property. The bodies were not discovered until the day after Christmas when one of Judy’s co-workers went to look for her when she didn’t show up for her job at the Carnation Post Office.

Anderson and McEnroe had fled, but returned to the scene that day where they were arrested.

By the time the trial begins it will be over five years since the murders took place.